CTA: Florida bill banning SOs from residing near pools, beaches, lakes, rivers
House Bill 45 and Senate Bill 212 seek to add to the 1,000 ft residency restrictions of childcare facilities, schools, parks and playgrounds by including “public swimming pools” and “public bathing places”. These residency restrictions result in 80% or more of Florida being off limits for registrant housing. Registrants who have committed one of the enumerated offenses; involving a victim under 16 years of age; and after 2004 for a Florida offense or 2010 for an out-of-state offense would be required to move before July 1, 2026, under the current version of the law.
The Florida Sheriffs Association President stated that these bills close a loophole and are a priority of the Florida Sheriffs Association. The Senate sponsor stated the bill is a clarification, but it’s actually an expansion. They want to expand the exclusion zone.
Florida Statute 514.011 Definitions. (2) “Public swimming pool” or “public pool” means a watertight structure of concrete, masonry, or other approved materials which is located either indoors or outdoors, used for bathing or swimming by humans, and filled with a filtered and disinfected water supply, together with buildings, appurtenances, and equipment used in connection therewith. A public swimming pool or public pool shall mean a conventional pool, spa-type pool, wading pool, special purpose pool, spray pool, splash pad, or water recreation attraction, to which admission may be gained with or without payment of a fee and includes, but is not limited to, pools operated by or serving camps, churches, cities, counties, “child care facilities” via this bill to replace “day care centers”, group home facilities for eight or more clients, health spas, institutions, parks, state agencies, schools, subdivisions, or the cooperative living-type projects of five or more living units, such as apartments, boardinghouses, hotels, mobile home parks, motels, recreational vehicle parks, and townhouses.
Florida Statute 514.011 Definitions. (4) “Public bathing place” means a body of water, natural or modified by humans, for swimming, diving, and recreational bathing used by consent of the owner or owners and held out to the public by any person or public body, irrespective of whether a fee is charged for the use thereof. The bathing water areas of public bathing places include, but are not limited to, lakes, ponds, rivers, streams, artificial impoundments, and waters along the coastal and intracoastal beaches and shores of the state.
TALKING POINTS: Your first two sentences should be “I oppose HB 45 and SB 212. They are fundamentally and morally flawed.”
Please choose one or two points at the most. Use your own words. Tell personal stories in an uplifting manner such as “I served 10 years in prison, 5 years on probation and now support my spouse and children and give to my community”.
If you are using the telephone, please keep your message to 1 minute or less. If you are emailing, please keep your message to three paragraphs or less. If you call after hours, your voice mail will be counted.
FAMILY IMPACTS: This bill will –
Eliminate safe housing for thousands of people who will no longer be able to live in places that are safe for registrants and their children/families (not usually targeted by vigilantes).
Force me to move from my home of decades, leave my neighbors and job. The water-related restrictions would apply retroactively to those with offenses after Oct 1, 2004. This bill would immediately eject those who were previously in compliance if their offense date is after Oct. 1, 2004.
Prevent my children and me from living in our home.
Prevent my tenants from living in a safe, secure environment.
LEGAL IMPACTS:
HB 45 and SB 212 are perhaps illegal and unconstitutional as they would result in most of Florida being an exclusion zone for people on the sex offender registry.
A map of Florida “public swimming pool and public bathing places” exclusion zones is required for law enforcement and registrants to be compliant.
Banishment: Approximately 74% (reasonable range 65 – 80%) of existing dwelling units in Florida are within 1,000 feet of water/pools (Chat GPT estimate using GIS-based data). Further, with the inclusion of other current Florida statute residency restrictions, this bill, if enacted, would result in most of Florida being an exclusion zone for people on the sex offender registry.
In Miami-Dade county, 94% (reasonable range 90 – 97%) of existing dwelling units are within 1,000 feet of water/pools (Chat GPT estimate using GIS-based data).
Similar to the overall Florida population, most people labeled as sex offenders currently live within 1,000 ft of either a public bathing place or a public swimming pool as defined in Florida Statutes.
Mass Migration: This bill would require thousands of registrants, their children, and their families to move to “dry land” small inclusion zones in the larger counties and the Panhandle where jobs are scarce. Hence, increasing dependency on social services.
EMAIL ADDRESSES and PHONE NUMBERS for house criminal justice subcommittee:
Chair Danny Alvarez: [email protected], [email protected], 850-717-5069
Vice Chair Webster Barnaby: [email protected], [email protected], 850-717-5029
Democratic Ranking Member Johanna Lopez: [email protected], [email protected], 850-717-5043
Rep. Jessica Baker: [email protected], [email protected], 850-717-5017
Rep. Doug Bankson: [email protected], [email protected], 850-717-5039
Rep. Robin Bartleman: [email protected], [email protected] 850-717-5103
Rep. Robert Brackett: [email protected], [email protected] 850-717-5034
Rep. Tom Fabricio: [email protected], [email protected], 850-717-5110
Rep. Michael Gottlieb: [email protected], [email protected], 850-717-5102
Rep. Sam Greco: [email protected], [email protected], 850-717-5019
Rep. JJ Grow: [email protected], [email protected] 850-717-5023
Rep. Dianne Hart: [email protected], [email protected] 850-717-5063
Rep. Bill Partington: [email protected], [email protected] 850-717-5028
Rep. Rachel Plakon: [email protected], [email protected] 850-717-5036
Rep. Kelly Skidmore: [email protected], [email protected] 850-717-5092
Rep. Kevin Steele: [email protected], [email protected] 850-717-5055
Rep. Taylor Yarkosky: [email protected], [email protected] 850-717-5025
EMAIL ADDRESSES and PHONE NUMBERS for Senate criminal justice committee:
Chair Senator Jonathan Martin: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] 850-487-5033
Vice Chair Senator Carlos Guillermo Smith: [email protected], [email protected], 850-487-5017
Senator Mack Bernard: [email protected], [email protected], 850-487-5024
Senator Jennifer Bradley: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], 850-487-5006
Senator IIeana Garcia: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], 850-487-5036
Senator Jason Pizzo: [email protected], [email protected], 850-487-5037
Senator Corey Simon: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], 850-487-5003
Senator Clay Yarborough: [email protected], [email protected], 850-487-5004
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So correct me if I’m wrong about this please.
So while I’m asleep just like everyone else, I can’t lay my head down within 1000 ft of a pond, lake, pool, or ocean? But during daylight hours I can fish, kayak, boat, and swim in all these locations? When everybody’s out and about using these areas. Does that mean I can go to places like Ichetucknee Springs and Ginnie Springs? How about my neighbor swimming pool, can I go to that?
Or am I not allowed to fish, Kayak, boat, and swim? I’m not allowed to own a boat cause I can’t put it in the water, no jet skies, no fishing license or pole. What about the people forced to register who live on a boat? Are they now not allowed to live on their boat no more? Or are they grandfather in right now? But the minute they move their boat to another dock or location, they can no longer live there and have to take their boat out of the water and sell it? What if I put a swimming pool in my yard? Is that make me not compliant anymore? Are they basically trying to cut us off from ever touching water again other than out of the faucet or shower in our own homes?
If you are not on probation, fish, kayak, boat and swim as you please among everyone else. Just don’t sleep within the 1000 feet of the lake. If you watched the Subcommittee (link is in a post from last week), this idiocy was pointed out.
i have seen many responses to your comment and i wanted to add mine to the pile because of the experiences i and many on this e-mail chain have had with the politicians in FL over the past years .
If this passes today it will not effect you. However like every RSO restriction law they pass, tomorrow some up and coming legislator will want to get elected on protecting children and they will amend the bill to include all RSO’s no matter the conviction or in this case non conviction(adjudication withheld) date, and that will pass too.
so if history teaches us anything, today your good tomorrow your not
what scares me is if we cant go near water in FL which is a large part of the state, what are they going to do to us next?
At least give us a tier system and allow some of us to get off the registry well before 25 years to appeal.
All i am asking for is a little common sense
Or just leave that horrible state. I moved to Massachusetts where I’m free!
This is insane. Many of these people have homes and families near water and have lived there many years. A few of these people have been charged with sexual abuse charges that aren’t actually abuse. They have to suffer apparently the rest of their lives. To make their family suffer, uproot from the home they have made and try to find a location away from water to move to is crazy. The people trying to push this foolishness need to rethink what they are doing. The state needs to reexamine some cases and reclassify some people.
I had one of these email addresses bounce back: :Your message wasn’t delivered to [email protected] because the address couldn’t be found, or is unable to receive mail.”
Also, having the House and the Senate emails all together in a list form is more helpful for sending your emails out with BCCs to each legislator.
Remember that a mass mailing may result in your address being marked as spam.
OK….I am sending the following email to all email addresses listed above:
Dear Members of the House and Senate Criminal Justice Committees,
I oppose HB 45 and SB 212. They are fundamentally and morally flawed.
While I understand and share the desire to keep Florida’s children and families safe, these bills would drastically expand residency restrictions in a way that is neither practical nor constitutional. Adding “public swimming pools” and “public bathing places” to the 1,000-foot exclusion zones would make large portions of Florida uninhabitable for thousands of law-abiding citizens who have already completed their sentences, rebuilt their lives, and contribute positively to their communities.
The proposed expansion would force families—including spouses, children, and aging parents—to leave their homes, lose stable employment, and uproot from supportive neighborhoods. Such displacement increases homelessness, unemployment, and dependence on state services—outcomes that run contrary to public safety and fiscal responsibility.
Florida already has strict residency laws in place. We can protect the public without resorting to measures that effectively amount to banishment. I respectfully ask that you vote No on HB 45 and SB 212, and instead support data-driven policies that strengthen rehabilitation, reduce recidivism, and preserve family stability.
Thank you for your time and for your service to the people of Florida.
Sincerely,
MYNAME
MYCITY, Florida
I was released from prison homeless, with only $100 and with no identity papers in late 2016. I now own a beautiful home and two rental properties and have an executive work position because of my hard work and personal dedication to rehabilitation. I regularly give to charities from my burgeoning personal estate, and I am active in the Florida community advocating for rational sexual-offense laws and successful reintegration for returning citizens.
Thank you JJJJ!
I just sent them out to all 54 email addresses. One address bounced as undeliverable.
(Your message wasn’t delivered to [email protected] because the address couldn’t be found, or is unable to receive mail.) Not sure why.
Anyway, done.
Now ALL STEP UP AND DO THIS!!!! We can preach here to the “choir” or we can reach out….Even if you can only send to a few of these emal addresses, please do so, fellow members!!
JJJJ
I tried my superpowers to help you with that one email but I Only found one reference on Linked-in account, and I do not have a linked-in account so all I got was what you got as well. I am 50-50 on him being an intern because it appeared he is still in college. But having said that, some information may be old also. I tried.
Thanks for trying.
I think 1 out of 54 is close enough.
But everybody must do the same thing.
Maybe take my letter and go to chatgpt and feed it in and tell it to rewrite it in its own words.
Then send that to all. 53 (or 54 )of the addresses listed.
But everybody needs to do it not just a handful of us.
So, my crime was in 1997, does that mean I can go to local lakes, rivers or springs anymore with my wife and grandkids, or to a local beach?
it means just like every new RSO law they pass in Florida, Today it may not effect you but I guarantee that tomorrow it will. It started out years ago with one county and a 500 ft distance barrier and we have in a few short years come to almost 80% of the state being barred from RSO’s being there. it got so bad in Dade county the RSO’s that were not grandfathered in had almost no where to live. they are slowly working on now getting the grandfathered in, out also.
This cannot pass!!
Where is the ACLU?
Where are the pro bono attorney’s that used to fight for the people that cannot defend themselves?
Florida has gone too far
I don’t want to spend the remaining years on this earth running from stupid news laws/restrictions
This Call to Action is open to all. You do not need to be an attorney to participate.
Let my comment through because people need hope. Please. Jesus is that hope for many. It was for me.
James William Schupp.
Look me up.